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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941315">our filthy hands can wash one another's</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/oopshidaisy/pseuds/oopshidaisy'>oopshidaisy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>seducing norse gods for fun and profit [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Iron Man (Comics), Loki (Comics), Marvel 616</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon Compliant, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Tenderness, and that's saying something, tony stark's emotional intelligence is worse than mine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 22:41:26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,190</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27941315</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/oopshidaisy/pseuds/oopshidaisy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Answering the big questions, like: is it still an enemies-with-benefits situation if he's breaking into your workshop and healing your wounds?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Loki/Tony Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>seducing norse gods for fun and profit [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1614547</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>171</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>our filthy hands can wash one another's</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>title from 'soul meets body' by death cab for cutie</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They aren’t a couple. Tony is relatively sure they’re not a couple.</p><p>He doesn’t know a lot about Asgardian concepts of dating or monogamy, and since his only available source of clarification would be the brother of the one he’s sleeping with—well, when all’s said and done he’s struggling all by himself to define whatever fucked up situation he’s found himself in with Loki.</p><p>They haven’t exchanged any declarations, or said anything overtly romantic. They still bicker whenever they see each other. Loki still showed no hesitation in destroying the Anvil prototype when it suited him—which had led to a round of angry/celebratory (depending on which one of them you asked) sex so athletic that Tony had struggled to walk for three days. On the second of those days, he’d had to attend a meeting in which he explained to the investors why the flying car he promised them was now nothing more than a pile of scrap.</p><p>Loki had offered to fix it with magic, but that wasn’t the <em>point</em>.</p><p>They don’t even spend that much time together. If Tony was keeping track (which he’s not), he’d say that, on average, Loki shows up three times a month. If Tony was giving it a lot of thought (which he’s <em>not</em>), he might acknowledge that three times a month probably doesn’t seem all that infrequent to someone with a lifespan of several millennia.</p><p>All of this could conceivably exist within the bounds of an enemies-with-benefits situation, he’s sure, if not for the fact that they don’t always have sex.</p><p>The first time <em>that </em>had happened, Tony was just done fighting something unmentionable from the deep blue, and he was covered in nasty purpling bruises, plus no small amount of viscous black goo. Loki choosing that moment to show up had been…less than ideal.</p><p>“Not today,” he’d sighed. He wasn’t sure why Loki had stuck around for even a second after seeing him sat there with an ice pack clutched to his head and the dried remnants of a nosebleed decorating his nose and chin. “Come back when I don’t have a concussion.”</p><p>“That’s no way to treat a guest,” Loki said nonchalantly, hip propped against a worktable like standing unsupported was just too much of a hassle.</p><p>“You keep <em>breaking in</em>,” Tony shot back.</p><p>He’d definitely put the workshop on lockdown as soon as he got back, with strict instructions that no one was to be allowed in unless the world was about to end. It wasn’t the one he’d confronted Loki in that first time, either, all cavernous and clean. This one—this was his church. The security, ostensibly, was far more stringent. It was a jolt to realize he didn’t actually mind Loki’s presence in it.</p><p>Loki held his hands up and sauntered closer, somehow imbuing his every gesture with sarcasm. “Mm. Go ahead, arrest me. I’ve been very bad.”</p><p>Tony rolled his eyes. “Seriously, I’m no good to you today. I don’t care what Cap says, I just fought a real-life Kraken. With the tentacles and everything. I need to shower for at least four hours before I can have sex again.”</p><p>“And yet you came here,” Loki commented. His voice was mild, and he seemed relaxed. He was in a get-up of a sweater and leather pants, like some kind of freakishly adorable emo kid; Tony was going to have to ask about the fashion choices, one of these days. “I don’t see a shower.”</p><p>“Yeah, well,” Tony said. “There’s some stuff I have to do—the armor started leaking when I went under, and that takes priority over—” He looks down at himself, at the oily substance oozing over the undersuit. “Okay, yeah, this is pretty gross, but I wasn’t expecting company.”</p><p>“Evidently not,” Loki said, and then was kneeling in Tony’s space, tilting his face for better inspection.</p><p>“Um,” Tony said. “That’s really…not…necessary.”</p><p>“You said you have a concussion?”</p><p>Tony shut his eyes to avoid Loki’s. “Maybe. I don’t know, I didn’t stick around for medical.”</p><p>“You needed to make improvements to your armor,” Loki murmured, “and that takes precedence over your health.”</p><p>“Well,” Tony said. “Yeah.”</p><p>Loki hummed, but it was impossible to tell if it was in agreement or disapproval, so Tony kept his mouth shut.</p><p>“Your head is fine,” Loki said, after a few seconds. “But as for the rest of you—”</p><p>“I’ve had worse.”</p><p>Loki tutted. He hated being interrupted.</p><p>“I am no healer, but I can help,” he said. It was so unexpected that Tony blinked his eyes back open, only to end up hooked in the impossible magnetism of Loki’s gaze.</p><p>“You don’t have to,” Tony said, confused. “I still won’t be up for anything—”</p><p>“Shut up,” said Loki, who had no compunctions about interrupting other people.</p><p>And then, true to his word, he’d healed the worst of the injuries: the fractures, the broken nose, all of it. It had taken almost half an hour, and he’d had to touch Tony to do it—he’d had to strip Tony out of the undersuit, laying his hands on the bruises one by one to ease their hurt. The way Loki touched him wasn’t clinical, but there was nothing suggestive about it, either.</p><p>“That is all I can do,” Loki said when he was finished, quietly, with this edge to it like he thought Tony would be disappointed.</p><p>“C’mere,” Tony responded. There was nothing he could say, in that moment, to convey the way he felt. So he tangled a hand in Loki’s hair, which was on its way to growing out, long enough to wrap around Tony’s fingers, and dragged him into a kiss. A kiss which removed whatever plausible deniability there had been, blurred any boundaries that remained. Because it didn’t go any further than that one lingering kiss.</p><p>Either alternative would be better: if they hadn’t kissed at all, the encounter would’ve been odd but ultimately inconsequential, a favor between almost-friends. If they’d fucked, then at least Tony would know what to do with the thing that settled warm and heavy in his core when Loki kissed him back and pressed in closer, despite the fact that Tony was still sweaty and gross and covered in giant squid ink.</p><p>And, sure enough, after that the terms of the arrangement are irrevocably altered. When Loki arrives, now, Tony feels no compunction to put down whatever he’s working on; he knows Loki will wait. When he’s not in the mood, he says so, and Loki nods and takes it in his stride, and—more often than not—stays. He makes a nuisance of himself, prodding around with Tony’s tech and making derisive comments about the limitations of Midgardian science, or recounting tales of petty squabbles on Jotunheim that he’s expected to sort out on account of being King. Once or twice, he stays the night after they have sex, because at some point Tony gave up on any ability to compartmentalize and started letting Loki into his bedroom without hesitation.</p><p>Still. He’s pretty sure he’d know about it if they were a couple.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>i promise the next part of this series will be from loki's pov. hold me to that.</p><p>thank you to everyone who commented on the last fic with encouragement and ideas! you're all incredible</p><p>i'm on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/oopshidaisy">here</a></p></blockquote></div></div>
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